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They Wanted His Soul To Feed Their Evil Needs
Prompt #15 — The Lantern Man
“You’ll catch your death standing out here, Josh.”
She waited until her son was inside before locking the door. “Safe until morning,” she said, pocketing the key.
Three years earlier, Josh had stood watching his sister. “Mum said you mustn’t go there, Addie.”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” she laughed.
Addie wasn’t afraid of anything, but Josh believed the old tales about The Lantern Man. Though nobody mentioned it, she’d been gone three whole years to the day.
“Get up to bed, Josh.” His mother gave him a goodnight kiss.
It was the third anniversary of her disappearance — significant — wasn’t it?
Josh’s bedroom window let him see the marshlands. A thick mist had descended like the night his sister followed the Lantern Man.
Josh woke. Something had roused him. A sound, a feeling, an instinct?
“Joshua,” he heard his name. Addie called him Joshua.
From his window, he saw her on the edge of the marsh. “Addie,” he whispered.
“Joshua.”
Through the mist, he saw her grinning at him.
